Israeli startup uses advanced AI for new communication alternative for verbally-challenged people

BarVox, a startup developing a verbal communication alternative to traditional AAC eye-tracking and typing devices, translates the vocal output of verbally impaired individuals into personalized, understandable speech.

Traditional AAC eye-tracking and typing devices work well for people who are fully nonverbal. But for people who are semiverbal and have verbal impairments, including those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), current AAC technology can fall short.

The company was founded after Dror Levy, BarVox’s founder and CEO, spent years interpreting verbal cues from his 27-year-old son, Bar, who has autism and is semiverbal. Despite functioning independently, Bar, like thousands of others, “struggles with pronunciation,” and his speech “isn’t clear beyond family and friends.”

Levy recalled the frustration both caregivers and children felt when others in the outside world could not understand them.

With three decades of experience in research and development, marketing, communications, and cyber hi-tech, Levy set out to develop a tool that could speed up a process typically facilitated through AAC eye-tracking or typing devices.

The system emerged five quarters ago after BarVox took part in one of Hackatism’s hackathons. Hackatism, a startup community dedicated to developing technology for people with disabilities, awarded BarVox second place after it competed against 42 other startups and was evaluated by 30 judges.

BarVox is now launching 30 new pilots

Recognizing that caregivers, family members, and users themselves often understand the intended meaning and nuance of verbal cues, Levy decided to place the technology in the hands of users and their loved ones rather than rely on a predetermined program.

“We wanted something that is much more simple,” Levy said. Current devices are complicated and frustrating, he stated. “You have to spend time selecting between different categories, wishes, emotions, and the voice is not even your voice. And it takes time to find the category.”

BarVox is not limited to a single device. It can be used as an app on a “smartphone, mobile phone or tablet,” said CMO and CFO Gil Epstein.

This accessibility allows users to express themselves immediately and in a personalized way.

Epstein added that, while preserving the authenticity of an individual’s intended verbal expression, BarVox also preserves the speaker’s dignity. When translating verbal syllables or “part-words” into complete sentences, the app does not correct mistakes in the user’s verbal output.

According to BarVox’s demo video, once a user presses “listen,” the app continues listening in the background until prompted further. If it does not recognize a particular sound, it adds it to a queue of new sounds requiring inclusion in the user’s personal dictionary.

Many existing AAC solutions, beyond eyegaze or typing, require users to browse and scroll through symbols or words to convey their intended meaning. By directly interpreting immediate verbal output, BarVox enables users to bypass that arduous step and ease the mental strain on the speaker, according to Ziv-Maxim.

“The sound of the translating voice is pleasant,” Levy said, adding that it can also be customized.

When asked whether the translating voice could be recreated from a non-generated human voice, Levy said it was possible, though the company is still evaluating which approach to take. For someone who has always had verbal impairments, Levy noted, producing a human voice could be startling for both the user and the audience.

However, Levy said recreating voices and verbal cues may make more sense for users who once spoke but developed verbal impairments because of war injuries. The goal of voice customization, he said, is to keep the user comfortable.

Levy recalled that one user’s mother asked the app to use her voice after noticing that, after years of communicating for her son, her voice relaxed him.

BarVox is already operating and assessing the system in two schools and one adult center. It is also looking to establish a pilot at a day center for teenagers.

The company is generally operating in small- to medium-sized centers as it focuses on private pilots.

It also hopes to launch a precept investment round that will “enable the addition of features and capabilities” needed to enter production and “initiate three pilots with large organizations,” Levy said. One prospective organization is ALUT, a leading organization focused on the well-being of Israelis with autism.

BarVox partners with University of Haifa

BarVox has also begun research with the University of Haifa, which is evaluating the effect of its application on the social-emotional well-being of verbally impaired users.

While organized statistics on the program’s effectiveness do not yet exist, Levy hopes that the next three months will produce more concrete results that can be compiled into a real dataset. However, he said, “We are getting feedback, and people are asking if we can add certain features. That shows that they are using it.”

Rather than a clinical or medical solution, BarVox is a social tool, Levy said: an accessible companion that can immediately facilitate communication and social integration for people with speech impairments.

“We are trying to penetrate all organizations that help individuals with verbal challenges- a different variety of people-and offer them the ability to use our application. We want these individuals to know this tool is totally different from what is already on the market. We truly believe that this will change their lives. Our vision is for us to “let them be a part of life: at work, career, family.”

The business model will eventually be offered as a monthly license to individuals, families, or the healthcare institutions caring for them.

At the end of the day, “the goal is only to make them feel understood,” Epstein said.